This study suggests a particular conceptualization of power for purposes of explaining the onset of international warfare. Power is here understood as a capability to effect a reduction of environmental uncertainty, while the exercise of power for the benefit of an actor is the actual reduction...

This study examines the relationship between scarcity and inequality, especially in the comparison between the behavior of agrarian and industrial societies. Specifically, we ask why it is that major revolutions almost always occur in predominantly agrarian societies but almost never in...

In this article, an equilibrium theory of conflict behavior is developed in which there exists a balance or equilibrium in the number of disputes begun and ended in a given time period. Significant interdependence as the result of diffusion, reinforcement, or a common source of conflict behavior...

Models of revolutionary behavior in Central America are developed that rely initially on the distribution of landholdings. The scarcity of arable land—as in El Salvador, with its high population density—is suggested to result in high inequality, acute class polarization, and...

The origins of autocracy in hydraulic civilization and the threat of war emerging from many land borders lead to an examination of two environmental sources of democracy—rainfall and sea borders. Karl Wittfogel's theory of Eastern autocracy arising from the need for centralized irrigation...

Three models for the development of democracy in agrarian society during the period from 1973 to 1987 are examined empirically. Building on accounts of the development of democracy in ancient Athens and prior systematic studies, it is suggested that agricultural density is related to land...